Jason Dernbach, 24, was given the soft punishment after confessing to a three-year crime spree.

At the time he was behind bars for 26 separate offences.

Surrey Police, which made the decision, says it has suspended its policy of ‘multiple cautions’.

Kevin Hurley, the newly elected police and crime commissioner for the county, said he would investigate the case.

‘It seems that if someone has admitted
113 further offences then there ought to be an additional sanction for
this,’ he added. ‘I’ve never known a burglar who is locked up in D Wing
break into someone’s house.’

Last January, Dernbach, from Woking,
was jailed for four-and-a-half years at Guildford Crown Court after
admitting six burglary charges.

He confessed to another 15 thefts and four car break-ins and these were taken into consideration as part of the sentence.

The court heard that in 2011 he stole
more than £20,000 of games consoles, laptops and digital cameras to pay
for his drug habit. One offence took place while he was on police bail.

Behind bars he made further admissions
to the police of 113 burglaries and car break-ins between 2005 and
2007. Officers could have chosen to prosecute but opted instead for a
‘retrospective caution’.

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Cautions appear on a criminal’s record but do not result in any further punishment.

At the same time they allow the force
to declare a crime ‘solved’ and improve its conviction rate. Peter
Cuthbertson, of the Centre for Crime Prevention, a think-tank, said:
‘Each year thousands of repeat offenders receive a caution for serious
offences like burglary.

‘Pathetic punishments like these only
serve to prove career criminals right when they say getting caught is
just an occupational hazard. Cautions should be reserved for minor
offenders.’

Official figures show nearly 28,000 offenders were handed multiple cautions in 2011.

Of those, 3,531 were cautioned three times, 820 four times, 300 five times and 23 at least ten times.

Kevin Hurley, the newly elected Surrey police and crime commissioner, said he will investigate the case

In May last year a court heard how a serial burglar who was spared prison went on to commit 22 more raids in nine months.

Jason Reed, 39 and from Bristol, was
handed a suspended jail term despite admitting 12 burglaries and having a
previous conviction for rape, indecent assault and false imprisonment.

On release he carried out another 22 home break-ins and was finally jailed for six years after admitting 49 other crimes.

Official figures show the average burglar now has around 12 break-ins on his record – the highest number ever logged.

And of those convicted last year more than 3,000 had been found guilty at least 20 times before.

In the year to June 2012 around half
of all burglars escaped jail –with one in three given a community
sentence and 11 per cent a suspended jail term.

A spokesman for Surrey Police said:
‘Cautions for a large number of offences were only given out in
exceptional circumstances and only when a specific set of criteria had
been applied and met.

‘The criteria would include the
offender having already received a significant custodial sentence and
having the support of the victims.’ He said it brought closure for some
victims.